Terrorism

Terrorism: Cause and Responses

June 14, 2005

Answer 1

Our world has been a victim of terrorism and terrorist acts since the civilized human life began on this planet. There have been radicals and extremists who have been unhappy about something or the other all along during the development of our world. It can be seen that the ways how these people terrorized the world has changed along with time. Terrorists have always used the path of violence to get their voice heard to the world. With the technological innovations these groups also adapted their means of violence.

One of the examples of the traditional terrorist group (which I must clear that any Indian would not believe it to be a terrorist group but at the time was labeled as a terrorist group) was Hindustan (Indian) Republican Association in India. The whole world knows that India got its independence by following the path directed by Mahatma Gandhi of non-violence, but not many people know that even during the time of Gandhi India did see some brave soldiers like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and many more young generation people who formed groups to fight against the British government. These people were called terrorists by the British government during that time. One of the most famous groups of that time was Hindustan (Indian) Republican Association (HRA) and Bhagat Singh was one of the most active members of group. Before Bhagat Singh joined HRA the activities and the purpose of this group was unknown to the general public of India and that was one of the main reasons that even the population of India thought that this group was a terrorist organization, but everything changed after Bhagat Singh joined HRA. Bhagat Singh was a well educated man who believed in communism. He studied the writings of the anarchist leader Bakunin, some thing of the father of communism Marx, but more of Lenin, Trotsky and others who had succeeded in bringing about a revolution in their country. For Bhagat Singh the decisive break came in the post-1926 period when the Hindustan Republican Association leadership fell on his shoulders. He lost no time in articulating the necessity of having a political ideology and that was to be Marxism.

In 1928, Bhagat Singh also had the responsibility of the Hindustan Republican Association with Chandra Shekhar Azad, other leaders having been sent to the gallows or given a life sentence. The first thing he did was to change its name to the Hindustan (Indian) Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). The party was recognized with a central committee and with provincial and district committees under it. All decisions were to be taken in these committees, majority decisions were to be binding on all. HSRA did many violent acts to fight against the British government, they looted a train in Kakori which was carrying lots of government money, they also murdered a British officer, and the biggest act was the bombing in the Legislative Assembly. By this time most of the young generation of India had started believing in Bhagat Singh and were joining HSRA. Bhagat Singh was labeled a terrorist and to prove the British government wrong he did the bombing in the legislative assembly and turned himself in, so that he could bring the reality of the corrupt government in front of the people of India by fighting his own case in the court. Bhagat Singh believed that the perception of the existence of class cleavages in society also led to the understanding that violence would be imperative to bring about a change in the social structure. It was a violence that destroyed to build. The Communist Party of India was formed in 1925-26 and had to almost immediately go underground. Within the next six years Bhagat Singh was executed and it remains one of the big ifs of history whether he would have joined the party as his companions did.

On the other hand if we talk about the new generation terrorism the example of al-Qaeda would be appropriate. As discussed in class and also from my own knowledge I can say that one of the worst terrorist groups the world had every seen is al-Qaeda. This group is one of the new generation terrorist groups; it all began in early 1995 when Osama bin Laden came back to Afghanistan from Sudan. Every educated person in this world knows al-Qaeda or Bin laden the founder of this group. The worst thing about this group is "Bin Laden is the leader of a movement that doesn't necessarily need a leader to function and be effective," said Juliette N. Kayyem, a terrorism expert at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and a former member of the National Commission on Terrorism. "This is such a diffuse structure that it can survive without him." (Benjamin Weiser and Tim Golden, September 30, 2001, the New York Times). The al-Qaeda consists of many Islamic extremists and radicals who believe in reuniting all the Islamic countries together and to fulfill this goal they execute terrorist acts in the name of Jihad (Holy War). The al-Qaeda group got its funding from many rich Islamic individuals who supported their beliefs and with the help of these funds they had been able to get hold of extremely expensive weapons and also created various terrorist training camps. Al Qaeda had taken great advantage of the protection of the Taliban in Afghanistan to build up a steady supply of arms and camps to train recruits from around the world. The terrorist camps were the hub for training the radicals for using the latest technologies available to the civilized world to create terror in the world by the violent acts. The new generation terrorists are assumed to be very well educated people from different backgrounds, who can easily understand and use the new technologies and weapons to achieve their goals. The training camps trained the jihadis intensively in the fields like; using modern arms and ammunitions, breaching security, gathering intelligence, kidnapping, picking targets, doing surveillance, making bombs, and the hijacking of buses and planes.

The attack of September 11, 2001 proved the whole world how capable and well trained these people were. The whole plan was plotted in Afghanistan and with the help of Bin Laden it was carried out in America; the hijackers were well trained in breaching the security, and flying the planes so that they can be crashed in to the determined targets. It is also believed that these organizations do have the abilities of producing weapons of mass destructions which they will not hesitate to use if necessary.

We can clearly see how the new generation terrorists have evolved from the traditional ones and how they have adapted themselves in using the technologies, from the small bomb blasts to bombing public buildings and embassies around the world to suicide